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U.S. moving aircraft carrier closer to Iraq

Hundreds of young Iraqi men gripped by religious and nationalistic fervor streamed into volunteer centers Saturday across Baghdad, answering a call by the country's top Shiite cleric to join the fight against Sunni militants advancing in the north.

Iraqi Shiite tribal fighters deploy with their weapons while chanting slogans against the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to help the military defend Baghdad on June 13, 2014.(Photo: Karim Kadim, AP)

As insurgents took more territory in Iraq on Saturday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered an aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf as the U.S. weighs options for responding to the situation.

The aircraft carrier USS George H. W. Bush will move into the Persian Gulf by Saturday evening, where it will be accompanied by a guided-missile cruiser and destroyer, according to statement by Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby.

"The order will provide the Commander-in-Chief additional flexibility should military options be required to protect American lives, citizens and interests in Iraq," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Iraqi officials pledged severe punishment for deserting soldiers, whom they blame for the fall of two key provincial capitals earlier this week.

"If soldiers who have left their bases don't rejoin the nearest unit, this will be considered a crime that could merit the death penalty," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said.

On Saturday, insurgents seized the small town of Adeim in Diyala province 60 miles north of Baghdad after Iraqi security forces withdrew. That followed the fall of Mosul and Tikrit this week into the hands of an al-Qaeda splinter group, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

The Sunni group aims to establish an Islamist state spanning Iraq and Syria, where they are also fighting.

About 750,000 men lined up at volunteer centers in Baghdad to answer the call by a top Shiite cleric, Iranian-born Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, to fight the militants, Iraqi broadcaster Al-Baghdadiyah reported.

Iraqi officials said there was a massive push to roll back the insurgents' gains in Tikrit on Saturday, with the help of Kurdish militias known as Peshmerga, the channel reported. They drove out militants who had taken over an army outpost about 15 miles west of the oil city of Kirkuk — which had been abandoned by deserting Iraqi army troops. The Kurds, who have an autonomous republic in the north, took control of Kirkuk after the Iraqi army withdrew.

A Kurdish soldier flashes the victory sign as they battle against Islamic State militants on Aug. 18 near Mosul, Iraq. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

A Shiite fighter loyal to Iraqi cleric Moqtada al-Sadr holds a position in support of the Iraqi army during a fight against Islamic State militants in the Jurf al-Sakher district on Aug. 18 outside Baghdad. (Photo: Ali Al-Saadi, AFP/Getty Images)

An Iraqi Yazidi woman sits with a child Aug. 17 under a bridge where displaced people of this religious minority found refuge after Islamic State militants attacked the town of Sinjar. (Photo: Ahmad al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

A Kurdish peshmerga fighter prepares his weapon in Chamibarakat, Iraq. Kurdish forces took over parts of a nearby dam that was captured by the Islamic State extremist group. (Photo: Khalid Mohammed, AP)

Supporters of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki rally in Baghdad. Tanks and Humvees were positioned on Baghdad bridges and at major intersections with security personnel more visible than usual as pro-Maliki demonstrators pledge their allegiance to him. The placard reads, "al-Maliki is our choice." (Photo: Karim Kadim, AP)

Iraqis chant pro-government slogans in support of embattled Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Baghdad on Aug. 11. Al-Maliki is in a struggle to keep his job after Iraqi President Fouad Massoum nominated deputy speaker of the parliament Haider al-Abadi to replace him. (Photo: Hadi Mizban, AP)

Iraqi army armored vehicles patrol a street in Baghdad, amid tighter security after Iraq's prime minister said he would sue the president in a desperate bid to cling to his job. (Photo: Sabah Arar, AFP/Getty Images)

Peshmerga forces hand out water bottles and show the way to displaced Iraqi families from the Yazidi community as they cross the Iraqi-Syrian border at the Fishkhabur crossing, in northern Iraq. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

A displaced Iraqi boy from the Yazidi community crosses the Iraqi-Syrian border in northern Iraq. Many from the Yazidi, besieged by jihadists on a mountain in northern Iraq have safely escaped to Syria. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

An Iraqi Yazidi, who fled her home a week ago when Islamic State militants attacked the town of Sinjar, sits with a baby, on Aug. 10, in a building under construction where Yazidis found refuge in the Kurdish city of Dohuk. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

Iraqis Yazidis, who fled their homes a week ago when Islamic State militants attacked the town of Sinjar, sit on makeshift beds inside a building in the Kurdish city of Dohuk in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region where Yazidis found shelter. (Photo: Ahmad Al-Rubaye, AFP/Getty Images)

Displaced Iraqis from the Yazidi community settle at a camp at Derike, Syria. Kurdish authorities at the border believe some 45,000 Yazidis passed the river crossing in the past week and thousands more are still stranded in the mountains. (Photo: Khalid Mohammed, AP)

Female members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party take position on the front line in Makhmur, south of Arbil, the capital of the autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq where clashes with Islamic State militants are ongoing on Aug. 9. (Photo: Safin Hamed, AFP/Getty Images)

U.S. Air Force Sgt. Lynn Morelly watches bundles of halal meals parachute to the ground during a humanitarian airdrop mission on Aug. 9 over Iraq. (Photo: Vernon Young Jr., U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

An image from British broadcaster Sky television shows Kurdish soldiers battling militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant on June 18 near Jalula, Iraq. Kurdish security forces fought the Sunni militants, using heavy artillery and rockets to attack their positions. (Photo: Sky via AP)

A photograph released on June 17 by Albaraka News allegedly shows a militant fighter from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant tying up a captured Iraqi soldier at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq on June 12. (Photo: Albaraka News via epa)

A photograph released on June 17 by Albaraka News allegedly shows fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant inspecting vehicles belonging to the Iraqi army after they were captured at an undisclosed location near the border between Syria and Iraq. (Photo: Albaraka News via epa)

Men flash victory signs as they leave a recruiting center to join the Iraqi army in Baghdad. Young Shiite men are joining the army to battle a Sunni militant force advancing from the north. (Photo: Khalid Mohammed, AP)

Militants parade down a main road in Mosul. Days after Iraq's second-largest city fell to the militant fighters, some Iraqis are already returning to Mosul, lured back by insurgents offering cheap gas and food, restoring power and water and removing traffic barricades. (Photo: AP via Twitter)

A photograph from a militant website appears to show militants from the al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant taking aim at captured Iraqi soldiers wearing civilian clothing after capturing a base in Tikrit. ISIL has posted photos that appear to show its fighters shooting dead dozens of captured Iraqi soldiers in a province north of the capital Baghdad. (Photo: AP)

An Iraqi army armored vehicle destroyed during fighting with militants sits on a street on June 12 in Mosul. Militants belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant have captured Tikrit and Mosul after soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts. (Photo: AP)

An image from video posted by Iraqi0Revolution, a group supporting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, shows militants on the Al-Sharqat military base north of Tikrit. (Photo: Iraq0Revolution via AP)

Teenagers ride on an armored vehicle belonging to the Iraqi army in Tikrit on June 11. Al-Qaida-inspired militants seized effective control Wednesday of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, expanding their offensive closer to the Iraqi capital as soldiers and security forces abandoned their posts following clashes with the insurgents. (Photo: AP)

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U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on Friday expressed extreme alarm at the dramatic deterioration of the situation in Iraq, citing reports of summary executions and extrajudicial killings.

"The full extent of civilian casualties is not yet known," Pillay said. "But reports suggest the number of people killed in recent days may run into the hundreds, and the number of wounded is said to be approaching 1,000."

She said she was deeply disturbed by reports that ISlL fighters, including prisoners they had released from jails in Mosul and provided with arms, have been actively seeking out — and in some cases killing — soldiers, police and others, including civilians, whom they perceive as being associated with the government.

"We have, for example, received reports of the summary executions of Iraqi army soldiers during the capture of Mosul, and of 17 civilians on one particular street in Mosul City on June 11," she added.

U.N. officials also expressed concern at the more than 500,000 refugees who fled towns taken over by ISIL.

Residents in Mosul and Tikrit expressed bitterness over the army's abandonment of residents.

"People in Mosul were not happy with the Iraqi army but they asked for their protection, not for them to leave the city," said Samir Oda of Mosul. "The soldiers were heading towards Kurdistan — not a single one was left in Mosul. Now we are afraid our city will be destroyed by the government trying to attack the terrorists."

Many have questioned how it is possible that such a small fighting force as ISIL could take over key cities protected by the military and threaten the capital. But analysts say it was to be expected.

"The key thing to emphasize is that while on paper the Iraqi security forces are numerically enormously superior to ISIL, in these towns and cities the Iraqi militant security forces are relatively light in number," said Matthew Henman, manager of IHS Jane's Terrorism and Insurgency Center (JTIC), in London. "They are typically a kind of light infantry force, designed for largely static guard duties, rather than any kind of heavy urban combat."

By comparison, he says, that ISIL is a highly trained, highly organized and heavily armed force with experience in guerrilla operations from years of fighting in Iraq and also extensive experience in urban and street fighting against conventional army forces.

In the longer term, ISIL cannot easily hold onto the territory it has captured, analysts say.

"What has subsequently happened is that the security forces have rallied and started to take the fight back to ISIL and to start pushing them back," said Henman. "Because they are capable of engaging with them and defeating them in open combat. ISIL isn't so heavily experienced and armed that it is able to engage in conventional, prolonged combat with conventional security forces."

Still, disaffected Sunnis, Kurdish ambitions, a weak and often corrupt and brutal security force and government could lead to renewed civil war in the worst crisis since U.S. forces withdrew at the end of 2011, analysts say.

Al-Maliki tried to put a positive note on the situation of deserters.

"This is our chance to clean and purge the army from these elements that only want to make gains from being in the army and the police," he said. "They thought that this is the beginning of the end but, in fact, we say that this is the beginning of their end."

Iraqi military forces to date have had little success preventing the al-Qaeda inspired Sunni militant group ISIS from taking control of a number of Iraqi and Syrian cities. The group announced the formation of a new religious state that crosses traditional borders between Iraq and Syria. About the militants and developments in Iraq:

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SOURCES: The Long War Journal; American Enterprise Institute; London Telegraph: State Department; Photo: AP; Note: Islamic State control as of Aug. 21, 2014.